Quote Originally Posted by manwhohaseverything View Post
It's hard for writers to acknowledge the impossible with characters like superman because of there existing some do's and don'ts. Him acknowledging his 'fall' for lieing itself is enough for me. There by saying that there are certain things 'impossible' for superman. He can't kill. He can't save lives without lieing, many a times.
He lies all day every day in virtually every story by way of being Clark. We see him occasionally and currently deal with big and small consequences for that and for this story it's something Darkseid would know, so it's not really set up as being "enough" if it's just left at that. Of course historically there was a weird thing where Superman "couldn't" lie, but that has to tiptoe around his identity for one thing. Aside from that it's hard to say he can't kill vs saying he doesn't want to kill. I can't say we're given the impossible in that case or throughout this story, where it's just a term used repeatedly for the writer to telegraph a dramatic scene.

Finding a cure cannot be a journey either. because of the 'one shot' nature of the book nor is it part of the question posed.
Darkseid didn't select that particular alien and didn't actually watch what happened, so that whole sequence wasn't really necessary to the story. He might as well have just flown out and found a cure and had the same convo with Darkseid instead of sitting there with the knife and all that. It still works in that there are two chapters between that and the visit, and it places the little girl at stake, but it's a bit weird pace wise because it sets up the situation with great detail and resolves it as an afterthought that erases the bit or imagination it allows.

Batman Universe was exactly the same length but had a more effective story flow and for a one shot with the same size as one of these chapters I think King had a stronger statement with Action #1000.

no, superman is the best hero because he makes time to go on a Fools quest to save a girl out there in space somewhere and talks to her. That was the message for me. League, the robots and alien were mere side quests with lesser priority with robot being lowest. For other heroes these might be the main quests,not the side quest. He saved a girl, he just happened to punch a robot and saved the world while doing that. This trivialising of 'main quest' and the struggles of it as just side quest level difficulty makes superman great. Treatment of herculean tasks like breaking an unbreakable chain like an afterthought by superman and his great struggle in answering questions of an inquisitive girl, explaining how his powers work to her Is what makes superman great. King just decided to give a happy ending to everyone involved.
Well put. Certain elements make me too critical of others tbh. This being comics of course it has to turn the side quest into the main quest (the abduction of that single child means a mustache twirling plot to robopunch the world to rubble) and throughout it feels like King has the characters stare at the reader and make direct observations, but it does work better when you look at it as though the tasks really don't matter to him.


Superman isn't a martial artist. He shouldn't be put into that category. He can be an olymipian, a strong man, a boxer. but an asian style martial artist. Sorry, he just doesn't fit. Whatever is called martial art is basically mimicking Eastern martial arts and maybe even parodying it. He just isn't that kind of character. The character doesn't follow bushido, sun tzu, lao tzu... Etc or any martial or non martial philosophies of the east. It's basically, just latching on to something that's cool.
Eh... Horu Kanu and Klurkor are "Asian" stlye martial arts from Krypton used by pre crisis Faora and pre crisis Lois, respectively. Back in the late 60 to early 80s they were part of that craze I guess. Torquasm was a Kryptonian meditation and "awakening" type system Superman briefly used for focus and as a counter measure against reality warping and psychic warfare. If you mention Goku and all that well they do take influence from the same eastern concepts but it's not as though Superman copied them, whereas a lot of those characters take some measure of inspiration from him. Superman does take influence from pulp characters, chiefly Doc Savage. Golden age Superman was a "complete" renaissance man and a man of tomorrow, so in the beginning and occasionally throughout the years that sort of thing would be up his alley. I think it all sort of went away because there's enough to do in a story without it, but I don't see how it contrasts here.